Mark Bingham, of Portsmouth, has his own take on Throwback Thursday, Flashback Friday and other nostalgic photo endeavors. It's called tintypes.

"I've been into history a long time. ...; I really like actually doing the history. I like learning about it," Bingham says. "I worked museums for quite a while doing living history ...; museums where you see trades being done."

Bingham was first introduced to the art in his teens when he met Rob Gibson, a vintage photography professional working at Gettysburg, whom he says is "one of the first people to bring this back to life."

"So I've wanted to do it for a long time," he continues. " ... Finally, I just decided I wanted to learn it, and taught myself about four years ago."

The delay was because of "life," he adds. Bingham attended the University of New Hampshire where he studied history and received a master's in education.

"And I was off doing other things," he says, and then "there was the money. It's expensive and I didn't have the money ...; the camera was $3,000, and the chemicals, and the equipment are expensive."

Bingham, who teaches advanced placement and honors history classes and electives on the Vietnam War and Civil War soldiers at Prospect Mountain High School in Alton, works with three cameras and shoots both tintypes and ambrotypes (the latter on glass plates).

One is a reproduction bellows camera he had built that is "slightly modernized," he says. The bellows are nylon rather than leather — not a choice to his liking.

Next came a self-built English sliding box camera. He studied the style at museums, online and in books, then drew up his own plans.

"It's all wood. It's two boxes — one is fixed the other slides in and out replacing the bellows. It's a small little thing you can hold in the palm of your hand that takes very small pictures."

The third is an original 1850s camera.

"That's a big, huge thing, a foot-square, and 2 feet long," Bingham says. "I had to make a part for it, but managed to make it functional."

Bingham uses authentic lenses; the newest is from 1899, the earliest from 1855.

"I prepare the plate on (location); the chemicals are pre-mixed. What I use is called collodion, it is a mixture of several chemicals that I prepare ahead of time."

Tintypes and ambrotypes require images be developed on site "within a minute or two of taking them," Bingham says.

In addition, the film must be made on the spot just before shooting. All this magic happens in a self-built portable darkroom.

"I found plans from a photo journal from the 1870s of a photographer from Hampton, N.H. He used it for a trip across the Carpathian Mountains," Bingham says.

Folded, it appears to be a large suitcase. It opens out to a table surface with its own black-and-yellow "box" that's 3 feet across, and 2 feet deep and high, which sets atop the table.

"I sit at the desk — I use an 1860s period stool — with a cloth over my head," Bingham says. "People often mistake it for a puppet show. People don't usually put it together unless I have the camera next to me." Bingham occasionally shoots in Portsmouth, taking shots of Market Square, the North Church, Bow Street and the like. His portrait work is generally reserved for historical re-enactment events, and the occasional wedding.

In the past, Bingham, decked out in period clothes, operated a 19th-century portrait studio at the annual fifth New Hampshire Civil War Encampment when it set up at Strawbery Banke Museum.

"That's basically operating the same as photos in the Civil War," he says.

The studio will pop up at the Hillsborough Living History Event in late August, and other occasional events.

"The photos are not cheap, but not super expensive; it depends on the size. A big plate — 8-by-10 or a 5-by-7 — gets pricey and I can't always guarantee they will come out right the first try," Bingham says. "The chemicals change depending on temperature and humidity, and they change based on their age. Plus light conditions can make changes."

In addition the lens cap is the shutter, "So you really have to know your chemicals and how they're running," Bingham says. "It's a little bit trial and error. But I've gotten pretty good at it."

Bingham says he's fascinated by the complexity of the process and the level of understanding of chemistry and lenses that existed among photographers.

"I also, though, greatly enjoy learning a 19th-century trade," he adds, "and being able to teach the public about it by doing it as opposed to just talking."